Modernization and the family structure of the elderly in the United States

The major shift in the family structure of the older American population occurred during the twentieth century, especially in the period since World War II. This transition to living alone came long after discontinuities had developed in other major indicators of economic, demographic, familial and attitudinal modernization. The long delay in the transformation of household structure is, however, consistent with a family ideology that is explicit and implicit in the writings of the seventeenth-century English philosopher John Locke. The article presents data on the relationship to household head and on the kin composition of the households of the elderly (65+) between 1880 and the present. The 1900 national sample of non-institutionalized older persons (55+) also supplies details on living arrangements by nativity and by type of urban neighborhood and farm and non-farm rural residence.